Vicksburg at 150: Thousands of Illinoisans took part in campaign

This July 4 marks the 150th anniversary of one of the greatest military victories of the Civil War, the siege and capture of Vicksburg, Miss., by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his army containing thousands of Illinoisans.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct that Port Hudson is in Louisiana.

BELOW:Vicksburg ?campaign events

This July 4 marks the 150th anniversary of one of the greatest military victories of the Civil War, the siege and capture of Vicksburg, Miss., by Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his army containing thousands of Illinoisans.

On that “Glorious Fourth,” Grant accepted the surrender of Confederate Gen. John Pemberton and his army.

More than 36,000 Illinois soldiers participated in Grant’s campaign. Their names are inscribed inside the Illinois State Memorial at the Vicksburg National Military Park.

“Vicksburg is not the death blow, but it is a mortal wound to the Confederacy,” said Rob Girardi, a Civil War historian, author and lecturer from Chicago who also serves on the board of directors of the Illinois State Historical Society.

Girardi said the victory effectively gave control of the Mississippi River to the Union and cut the Confederacy in half. Only one remaining Confederate river garrison — at Port Hudson, La. — would be left and it would surrender days later.

Control of the Mississippi had long been sought by the nation’s leaders, including President Abraham Lincoln.

“See what a lot of land those fellows hold, of which Vicksburg is the key. … The war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket,” Lincoln is said to have told officials early in the war.

Various unsuccessful efforts to take or bypass Vicksburg, a fortified city on bluffs commanding the river, began in 1862.

The campaign ?in a nutshell

Grant’s forces crossed the Mississippi River from Louisiana at Bruinsburg, Miss., on April 30 and May 1, 1863, and struck inland to separate Confederate forces in Vicksburg from those to the east in Jackson, Miss.

Pemberton’s forces fell back to Vicksburg, where they holed up behind extensive earthworks circling the town.

Grant’s forces unsuccessfully attacked the Confederate earthworks twice. They then dug in for a siege. The goal was simple: Starve the enemy out.

On July 3, after weeks of siege warfare, Pemberton — with his army and civilians in the town starving — began correspondence with Grant about terms of surrender. That surrender came the next day — July 4 — to the ire of the Confederate forces.

“As a cohesive fighting force, that army was off the map forever,” Girardi said of Pemberton’s men.

Grant sent a message to Gen. H.W. Halleck at 10:30 a.m.: “The enemy surrendered this morning. The only terms allowed is their parole as prisoners of war,” Grant wrote.

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Military masterpiece

Historians including Girardi call Grant’s campaign for Vicksburg a military masterpiece.

The campaign is still taught at the U.S. Army War College, he said.

Mark M. Boatner III in his “The Civil War Dictionary,” says Grant’s orders after crossing the river were to proceed south to help Gen. Nathaniel Banks attack another strategic river city — Port Hudson, La.

Boatner writes that Grant, after hearing from Banks that he was west of the Mississippi River, took the initiative to strike in the rear of Vicksburg, separate enemy forces and isolate the river fortress. The rest is history.

Grant faced criticism for the move.

Lincoln would write to Grant on July 13, 1863, admitting the general was right.

“When you got below (Vicksburg), and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join Gen. Banks; and when you turned Northward East of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment that you were right and I was wrong,” Lincoln wrote.

According to the Vicksburg National Military Park, the Vicksburg campaign cost the Union army 10,142 casualties. The Confederates lost 9,091 men.

Illinois’ contributions

From the top down, Grant’s army at Vicksburg included thousands of Illinoisans.

“Illinois’ role is phenomenal at Vicksburg,” Girardi said. “The who’s who of Illinois regiments are there.”

The names of generals from Illinois in the campaign besides Grant are familiar — Benjamin H. Grierson, John A. Logan, John McClernand, Thomas Ransom, Michael Lawler and Stephen A. Hurlbut, to name a few.

Dozens of regiments from across Illinois — a large part of Grant’s army — were involved in the campaign.

Among them was the 114th Illinois Volunteer Infantry, made up of companies from Cass, Menard and Sangamon counties.

The 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry — the “Lead Mine Regiment” — made up of men from eight counties, including Jo Daviess and Winnebago, had miners from the Galena area in its ranks. The men used their skills to help tunnel below a Confederate fort to blow it up with black powder. After the explosion, the 45th and another regiment unsuccessfully assaulted the Confederate line. The 45th’s lieutenant colonel, Melancthon Smith of Rockford, was killed in the assault.

Rockford-area regiments included the 95th Illinois Volunteer Infantry — raised in Boone and McHenry counties. The 95th is known for having a woman secretly posing as a man in the ranks. That soldier, Pvt. Albert Cashier of Belvidere, was found to be woman long after the war.

Also in the campaign was the 93rd Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which hailed mostly from Stephenson and Bureau counties. The 93rd suffered the most casualties — 162 — of any federal regiment at the battle of Champion’s Hill.

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Girardi notes how members of the Chicago Mercantile Battery hauled an artillery piece up a ravine by hand to fire into the Confederate works during the May 22 assault. Later, six of them would receive Medals of Honor for their actions.

Spoils of war

The triumph at Vicksburg did more than just capture an army of 29,000, more than 170 cannon and 50,000 muskets.

Girardi said control of the Mississippi denied the Confederacy supplies from its western states.

“One of the big things is that it cut off the Trans-Mississippi Confederacy from the rest of the Confederacy,” he said.

The victory reopened the river for U.S. commerce and enabled the North to more easily move troops around the Confederacy. “It is huge in terms of Army mobility,” Girardi said.

In a letter to James Conkling on Aug. 26, 1863, Lincoln wrote: “The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great North-West for it. Nor yet wholly to them. … The job was a national one.”

Today, the events and importance of the campaign for Vicksburg seem to be overshadowed by the battle at Gettysburg, Pa., which was fought July 1-3, 1863 — the final days of the Vicksburg siege. At Gettysburg, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s army was defeated by Union forces.

Of course, it was the site of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.

“Gettysburg gets all the spotlight,” Girardi said, noting the town’s proximity to Washington. “The marquee armies are fighting at Gettysburg.”?Plus, Gettysburg has a hit novel and movie.

Michael Shaara would base his Pulitzer Prize-winning 1975 novel “The Killer Angels” on Gettysburg. And a feature film, “Gettysburg,” would later be based on Shaara’s book.

While Grant was not fighting Lee’s army at Vicksburg, Girardi said Grant “played the hand he was dealt” in the way of local Confederate forces.

“It’s all fitting and proper that we remember Vicksburg,” Girardi said.

Vicksburg worth trip

Civil War historian, author and lecturer Rob Girardi of Chicago recommends a trip to Vicksburg, Miss., to visit the Vicksburg National Military Park and the Illinois State Memorial to Prairie State troops there.

Oct. 25: Ulysses S. Grant given control of Department of Tennessee, soon after begins campaign for Vicksburg.

December: Grant’s overland advance south along Mississippi Central Rail Road stopped as the result of Confederate cavalry raids by Gens. Earl Van Dorn and Nathan Bedford Forrest. Attack by Gen. William T. Sherman on Chickasaw Bluffs near Vicksburg fails.

1863

March 29: Gen. John A. McClernand put under Grant’s command. Ordered to build road on west side of Mississippi River from Milliken’s Bend, La., to a point south of Vicksburg. Grant’s troops begin marching south.